Ahead of the Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde’s scheduled visit, the Defence authorities on Saturday claimed that at least one Pakistani intruder had died when troops foiled an infiltration attempt at the International Border (IB) in Samba sector of Jammu.

The body of an “unidentified intruder” was found on Saturday morning close to the spot where where 13 people, including three militants, died last month in an encounter with militants.

Sources told The Hindu that the Army had foiled an infiltration attempt backed by intense firing on Friday night. They maintained that attempts to retrieve the body from the spot, between the ‘Zero Line’ of the IB and the barbed wire fencing near Suchetgarh Border Outpost, failed as there was continuous firing from the Pakistani side.

On Tuesday last, one Indian soldier was killed in mortar shelling by Pakistani troops across the LoC in the Mendhar sector of Poonch district. Later, two Border Security Force (BSF) personnel sustained injuries in another incident near Jammu.

Sources said the exchange of gunfire continued for several hours on Friday night in Akhnoor, Pargwal, Samba and other areas along the border. They said that intense firing was still going on in the Samba sector. Six civilians sustained injuries in gunfire from across the IB earlier this week in the Akhnoor area, close to the winter capital.

Mr. Shinde is scheduled to visit Hiranagar and Samba border areas of Jammu on October 22. It

Firing across the border has intensified since September 26, when three heavily armed militants reportedly intruded through the Hiranagar border and killed four policemen and two civilians in an attack on the Hiranagar Police Station before killing four soldiers at a military formation in Samba.

Soldier injured in Handwara

Meanwhile, official sources said that unidentified militants had attacked a Road Observation Party at Handwara on Saturday morning. One soldier sustained injuries. Sources said that the militants escaped but the security forces laid a siege to the neighbourhood and launched a search operation.